Curry Up Indian Grill – Spiciest Dish in Columbus Series

For when you need curry in a hurry.

COVID has been a weird time for restaurants and will continue to be for many, even as dine-in starts to come back as an option later this month. For some spots, they are going back to their roots, back to the basics of their menu, reducing it to make things easier. Vishal Patel, head chef and owner of Curry Up Indian Grill in Dublin is doing the opposite. With new items over the last couple of months including four types of Indian-inspired pizza and the latest concoction of “Loaded Masala Fries,” it’s been fun to keep up with Curry Up Indian Grill to see what they’ll come out with next. After trying out their lamb keema pizza a few weeks ago, we went back to the basics for this week’s spiciest dish. The picture below shows off their pizza, regular samosa and their mini samosas which are a lot of fun and pack an amazing flavor (with a tiny punch).

Columbus has many “down-the-line” types of restaurants including Chipotle, Brassica, Piada, Bibibop and Curry Up follows that formula (for most of its items). Choosing from a wrap, bowl or salad you then get to go through your base (rice or greens), curry type (tikka masala, rohgan josh, korma), protein (chicken, paneer, tofu, lamb), raita (cucumber yogurt, spicy avocado, mint chutney) and then an array of vegetables. We got two bowls this time around, one less spicy for the Lady of the Farm and then the spiciest that could be created from the menu for yours truly.

Chaats, chaats, chaats, everybodyyyyy.

Okay, does this look the prettiest? No, but it’s two samosas piled with chutneys, sauces, chickpeas, additional vegetables, and some corn and spices (note the bright red spices). The samosas are awesome at Curry Up and the combination of flavors is unlike anything I’ve had in a while. Unique and a little tangy, the samosa chaat covers a broad base of what Curry Up is doing overall. That mix of traditional and modern, bringing old school flavors to new school Indian food. If this looks like too much for you in terms of whats going on, the samosas themselves will do just fine. Fist-sized, the samosa has an awesome earthy seasoning to the potatoes it holds within and brings a slight kick with it.

The box of the Lady of the Farm

Korma chicken with a spicy rice base for the Lady of the Farm along with a variety of toppings. As we mentioned in an earlier post, she’s starting to build that spicy tolerance up, but this spicy rice knocked her back a bit. A few times she let out a “whyyy did I get the spicy rice instead of the regular.” Nose sweat starting to appear, this seemed like a dish that would bring the heat. As with a lot of Indian restaurants, Curry Up has variable spice levels, though when ordering online there’s not an opportunity to adjust that. When we had called in about the pizza, we were asked about the spice level and had gone “medium” to not kill the Lady of the Farm, so know that that’s an option.

Bowl Number twoooo.

Tikka Masala with a spicy rice base was the option I decided to roll with to test the spicy levels. Selecting the spicy avocado as my raita (essentially a sauce topping) and then getting spicy corn, spicy veg mix, sauteed cabbage and carrots as my toppings rounded out this boxed bowl. There’s no skimping on the spices here and a whiff of the tikka masala hit me with the typical masala smell, bringing with it a bit of the spiciness that I was expecting. After taking a bite of another samosa (seriously, those things are awesome), I dove into the Tikka Masala bowl with the spiciest ingredients that could be selected. The first bite was a wave of flavors and I could start to pick some spiciness out based on the ingredients I had mixed together. The spicy corn hits with just a tiny kick, while the somewhat pickled spicy veg mix hits with a bit more spicy force. Curry Up’s spicy rice is the star of the show though heat-wise, poking through the rest of the ingredients to deliver some tiny hot pokers to your mouth. Noticing the Lady of the Farm’s nose sweat was still visible from her spicy rice based bowl, I went through a few more bites. The heat was still there, but it stays pretty pleasant, like a house guest that shows up unexpectedly but then stays for the appropriate amount of time instead of overstaying their welcome. Heat dissipating and mouth full of another samosa, I considered the spicy ranking.

I mentioned variable spice levels and I’m not convinced that this was the highest, but it’s still a good indicator of how the spice levels would be at Curry Up for most folks. While we reserve the right to change these ratings, for the time being we are plopping Curry Up at #37 just after Amul India and their Level 6 Lamb Vindaloo and above Cuco’s Taqueria’s Camarones a la Diabla. There are rumors of a special spicy version that will be created for you, where Patel will go in the back and make it special, but I did not use the correct password to access this dish. In the two times I’ve been at Curry Up, the flavors have been awesome and I’m definitely going back for the Masala Fries sometime soon. Each time, I’ve chatted with the head chef and had some awesome conversations. Definitely worth a trip to Dublin if you’ve not been.

You can find Curry Up at 6181 Sawmill Rd, Dublin, OH 43017.

Look below for more in our spiciest dish in Columbus series and hit us up if you have any suggestions that are not already on our list!

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